Dinogator
Dinogators, known as Muckdiles in first two installments, then later known as Abyssal Death and Creeping Death, are a race of two-tailed, bipedal crocodilian creatures known for both their voracious appetite and playful nature. Unfortunately, that means they can be quite rowdy while hunting for prey, and depending on which game, may sneak on the player while they are busy with other monsters, play tag, and even surprise players from behind a door or at extraction points. They are usually encountered as FOEs, with the exception being in Etrian Odyssey II. They are found in numbers wherever there is water, but a few moved to harsher environments and evolved accordingly, making these exceptions fearsome opponents. Muckdile (Etrian Odyssey) Muckdile, a FOE from the third stratum Azure Rainforest, will remain stationary most of the time; however if you start fighting within their territory, all Muckdiles in the area will head your way and eventually join the fray. It has high attack and defense for the stratum it is found in, making it a very powerful enemy when first encountered. An added danger is the fact that some areas are common territory for more than one, so you might end up battling three at once. Its skill, Bite, can easily kill unprepared parties. They are weak against Ice, but their resilience makes it a formidable enemy. When you are within their territory, be sure to either finish random battles as quickly as possible or run away from them if you don't want to be engaged by one. Skills * Bite (Uses Head): Deals damage to all party members Drops * Gator Skin (Worth: 2100 en) Conditional Drop * None Related Monsters *Kingdile Muckdile (Etrian Odyssey II) These Muckdiles have adapted to their harsh ecosystem by becoming even more dangerous than any other regular monster found within the Forbidden Wood (or any non-draconic boss from the lower strata). Having boss-level stats, they wait in ambush behind doors at the highest floor of Lagaard's Labyrinth. They are a rare random encounter that, as all other normal battles on the highest floor, only can be triggered by opening a door. The game uses Scatter About as the battle BGM due to how difficult these successive battles can be. Be warned, this Muckdile is the strongest of its kind and will wipe you out no matter how high your level is if you are even slightly unprepared to face it. Chances to actually meet one are quite low, but if you're exceptionally unlucky you can meet one accompanied by Mothlords, or even two at once, so it is recommended to save every time you complete a loop on the 30th floor. Extracting on this floor can be quite dangerous as well, as Muckdiles tend to ambush in pairs while you do. It normally only uses Bite as its attack, which deals heavy damage and may hit random members for up to 8 times. Binding its head will make it harmless while the bind lasts. Making it sleep is also a good strategy to keep damage to a minimum, but if you bind more than one part of its body, it will start using his second move, Frolic, which has a chance to bind your whole party in return. This is also the only monster in the game with complete immunity to stun. Skills * Bite (Uses Head): 8 cut attacks to random targets * Frolic (Uses None): High chance of causing head/arm/leg bind to the entire party Drops * Croc Skin (Worth: 10000 en) ** Selling the Croc Skin unlocks the Speed Boots, which give +34 DEF and +9 AGI. * Iron Fang (Worth: 10000 en) ** Selling the Iron Fang unlocks the Dainsleif, a sword with +138 ATK. Conditional Drop * To get the Muckdile's conditional drop, the Iron Fang, it must be defeated with a physical attack. Abyssal Death (Etrian Odyssey III) These dangerous FOEs roam the Undersea Grotto searching for prey. Several of them live in the same area, but they don't interact with each other, so they will never gang up on the player (they will still join random battles though). On B8F, you face a mandatory boss fight against one. Their hunting grounds are quite reduced and they move slowly (1 step per 2 player steps), so they're easy to outmaneuver since they don't like going too far away from their patrolled territory; however they are quite fond of narrow corridors so explorers that are still not familiar with the stratum layout may find themselves cornered, and sometimes battling one is unavoidable. If you are caught, expect a tough battle. Their attack power is quite high for a 2nd stratum monster, and their skill, Tear Apart, will do a lot of damage to the whole party. They will use Tear Apart much more frequently when near death. Binding their arms is advised to limit their offensive capability to just regular attacks. Try to have a competent Hoplite with you to minimize damage, and use elemental and status-inflicting attacks to your advantage, since they are easily put to sleep. Skills * Tear Apart (Uses Arms): Damages entire party Drops * Crocodile Hide (Worth: 239 en) * Pig Iron Fang (Conditional) '''(Worth: 156 en) Conditional Drop * In order to get the Abyssal Death's conditional drop, the '''Pig Iron Fang, it must be defeated with a non-Magic-elemental (no Fire, no Ice, no Volt) attack. Dinogator (Etrian Odyssey IV) The Dinogator can be found in the south-western corner of the second land, the Scarlet Pillars. It protects the Moth's Garden cave by following the player around the perimeter. Unlike other FOEs on land maps, the Dinogator cannot be distracted by a food drop. Instead, to distract it, the player must drop either a mushroom to distract the nearby Dream Eater or a fish to distract the Omnihunter. The Dinogator will then rush in and attack them, giving the player a chance to slip by unnoticed. Contrary to popular belief, the Dinogator cannot be converted into a rare breed, not even by feeding them a rare Dream Eater. In battle, the Dinogator's main attack, Tear Apart, will hit all party members. It will also bite a single player for low damage. Binding its head respectively will stop these attacks. This FOE can be defeated with little difficulty by level 30. Skills * Tear Apart (Uses Head): Cut attack to entire party Drops * Dinogator Skin (Worth: 775 en) Conditional Drop * None Related Monsters * Tusked Crusher Creeping Death (Etrian Odyssey Untold) The Creeping Death is found on several islands of B14F of the Azure Rainforest. Stationary at first, it turns aggressive if the player stands up to 3 squares away from it, pursuing them until they leave the island they're on. A square island located on the east edge of the map contains two treasure chests guarded by two well-placed Creeping Deaths and an Aquatic Butcher. The player cannot access it without fighting through these monsters. Skills *'Vicious Bite' (Uses Head): Melee attack to entire party Drops * Gator Skin (Worth: 1370 en) Conditional Drop * None Related Monsters *Voracious King Dinogator (Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold) The Dinogator is a unique enemy found in the depths of 30F of the Forbidden Wood. Killing one is necessary to complete the quest "A Dance with Death", which will reward the player with the Claw of Bonds, the strongest Claw equipment in the game in terms of pure ATK bonus. The most common way to encounter Dinogators is as an incredibly rare random encounter through the forced encounter doors, though sometimes it will spawn 2 Dingators, which will present a much more difficult fight. There is a guaranteed way to find a Dinogator. To even reach it, the player needs to pass through multiple warp tiles in 30F in sequence, with one of them eventually placing them in a secret passageway that is normally inaccessible otherwise. Once this is accomplished, there is a shortcut towards the floor entrance for later ease of access. Heading to, and opening, the door at the end will force an encounter with a shiny Dinogator. The Dinogator is probably the toughest enemy short of the Ur-Child. Its attacks hit incredibly hard, even for a high level party, and its massive HP reserves allow it to tank a lot of damage before it goes down. Its Playful Bite attack can do high cut damage to the entire party, and Frolic can potentially completely bind the entire party. But when it reaches low HP, it will start to use its Pout attack that throws 10 random cut attacks across the entire party, potentially decimating it. As it holds immunity to instant death and petrification, there is no way to dramatically shorten the battle. Binding its head will lock out its powerful attacks, but when it does that it will constantly Frolic non-stop, so prepare Barrier every turn once it happens. Successfully landing Fear and controlling it with Suicide Word can buy the party several turns while it attacks itself. For those having trouble with the shiny version, consuming a "no rare breeds" food will instead force a normal variant of the Dinogator. Players who can reliably defeat it (usually on Picnic due to its high damage output) find it an easy source of experience for late-game level grinding. Skills *'Playful Bite' (Uses Head): Cut attack to entire party *'Frolic' (Uses None): May bind head/arm/leg on entire party *'Pout' (Uses Head): 10 random cut attacks to entire party Drops * Rigid Croc Hide '''(Worth: 5000 en) * '''Pierced Fang (Conditional) (Worth: 9999 en) ** Selling the Pierced Fang to the shop unlocks the Royal Byrnie, the strongest armor for the Sovereign. Conditional Drop * To get the Dinogator's conditional drop, the Pierced Fang, it must be defeated with a stab attack. Dinogator (Etrian Odyssey Nexus) The Dinogator is the ultimate FOE in this game. It appears as an overworld FOE, but this will only happen if the player has defeated the other three overworld FOEs and unlocked all labyrinth-related gather points. This means having reached the final floor of the Abyssal Shrine. Once these conditions are met, the Dinogator will spawn once all gather points are glowing, and in the process will ravage all of them at once. However, after this initial appearance the Dinogator prefers to restrict its movements to the Yggdrasil's and Cascade of Bluffs gather points, so all other gather points will become available for harvest again. The big issue here is that this iteration of the Dinogator holds nothing back. It uses Pout on the very first turn which is more than likely to slaughter the entire party unless it gets shut down with a lucky bind or ailment. If the party didn't even touch the Dinogator, it will continue to Pout until either it's taken damage or the party is dead. If it did take damage, it has two behaviors: Frolic will be prioritized if the party has no binds on them, and once anyone is bound it will try to go for the kill with Pout. Once it falls to 70% HP, it uses Playful Bite, a full-party attack that surprisingly is less punishing than Pout. It will use this skill non-stop, which is a great relief compared to nonstop Pouts. However, when it falls to 50% HP, it will Pout non-stop again, so it's preferable to burst it down before hitting this threshold. At 30% HP, its behaviour becomes more unpredictable. If none of the party is bound, the Dinogator will randomly choose between its three skills, so there's an equal chance between it leveling the party with Pout or scratching them with Playful Bite. If any bind is present on the party, it will throw out a Pout, so be careful with bind prevention. Surviving the turn 1 Pout is key to being able to progress anywhere in the battle. Since it's immune to panic, petrification, and paralysis, your one surefire way of preventing it from unleashing this first move is to put it to sleep. Starting with Wilting Miasma and having everyone unload Sleep Gases on it is a pretty reliable way to shut it down and buy your party a few turns to set up. Like before, binding its head causes it to cease the assault, and its AI now causes it to miss more turns than before. In fact, a head bind will render the Dinogator completely helpless for the first half of the fight. That said, a stray use of Frolic can be incredibly dangerous, but fortunately something like a Sovereign's Prevent Order can reliably defend against it (though this isn't foolproof). Since it's also harder to anticipate when Frolic comes out, a War Magus's Barrier isn't a perfect defense either. Blind is a nice failsafe as it can cause more misses from its Pout and Playful Bites in the odd turns, but be aware that stray hits will be lethal. A popular way of cheesing the Dinogator (especially on Heroic, where shifting down to Basic difficulty isn't an option) involves a party member with as little defense as possible, but also with the Vampire subclass. Enable their Force Boost, which causes them to always endure any amount of lethal damage, and have the rest of the party try to inflict Curse on the Dinogator, which should be relatively easy due to its lack of Curse resistance. Due to its low speed the Dinogator is likely last to move, and it's guaranteed to unleash Pout on the first turn, dealing lots of damage to the entire party... and to itself, giving you the victory with one survivor. Consider throwing in a Formaldehyde to also easily get the conditional. Skills *'Pout' (Uses Head): 10 random powerful melee cut attacks to the entire party, can hit the same target more than once. *'Frolic' (Uses None): Attempts to completely bind the entire party. Very fast act speed. *'Playful Bite' (Uses Head): Melee cut attack to the entire party. Drops * Dinogator Skin (Worth: 88,888 en) ** Selling this material makes the Cianontedae (50 DEF, 50 MDF, Act speed ↓↓↓↓), arguably one of the best boots in the game, were it not for the speed penalty. * Dislodged Fang (Conditional) (Worth: 150,000 en) ** Selling this materials makes the Ahemait Helmet (53 DEF, 30 MDF, all stats +3), the strongest helmet in the game. Conditional Drop * In order to get the Dislodged Fang, you must defeat the Dinogator with a Stab attack. Gallery EO3AbyssalDeathScan.png|Abyssal Death artwork scan. EO3AbyssalDeath_vectorized.png|Abyssal Death vectorized. SekaijuNoOmochabako.jpg|Featured in Sekaiju no Omocha Bako's cover.|link=Sekaiju no Omocha Bako Category:Etrian Odyssey I FOE Category:Etrian Odyssey II Monsters Category:Etrian Odyssey III FOE Category:Etrian Odyssey IV FOE Category:Etrian Odyssey Untold FOE Category:Etrian Odyssey I Monsters Category:Etrian Odyssey III Monsters Category:Etrian Odyssey IV Monsters Category:Etrian Odyssey Untold Monsters Category:Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold Monsters Category:Etrian Odyssey Nexus Monsters Category:Etrian Odyssey Nexus FOE